A rare Russian Cross of St. George group of four awarded to Able Seaman G. H. Wright, Royal Navy, for the rescue of members of the Russian Royal Family

1914-15 Star (239250 G. H. Wright, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (239250 G. H. Wright, A.B., R.N.); Russia, Cross of St. George, 4th Class, the reverse officially numbered ‘870 171’, generally very fine or better (4) £1200-1500

George Hopewell Wright was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, in August 1891 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in August 1907. An Able Seaman serving aboard the battleship H.M.S. Marlborough at the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he remained similarly employed until November 1920, shortly before he came ashore ‘time expired’ in September 1921. Thus his presence at the Battle of Jutland, when Marlborough was torpedoed while acting as the the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Cecil Burney. But his Russian decoration was awarded for subsequent services in the Black Sea in 1919.

Commanded by Captain C. D. Johnson, C.B., M.V.O., D.S.O., the Marlborough was serving in the Mediterranean when she was ordered to the Black Sea Crimean port city of Yalta on 7 April 1919, in order to evacuate the remaining members of the Russian Royal Family fleeing the advancing Bolsheviks. Among those taken on board Marlborough were Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, sister of Queen Alexandra, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, sister of Tsar Nicholas II, and Grand Dukes Nicholas and Peter, the Tsar's cousins. A total of 20 members of the Royal Family including a number of Princes, Princesses, Countesses and Barons were rescued representing four generations of the Romanov Dynasty. Additionally a further 63 servants and 200 tons of luggage were taken on board and evacuated to Constantinople. Marlborough departed Yalta on 11 April 1919, thus marking the end of the Romanov Dynasty which had ruled Russia since 1613.

Able Seaman George Wright was one of twenty petty officers and ratings awarded the Cross of St. George by White Russian General Dobrolsky on 16 July 1919, in recognition of services in the rescue of the Royal Family and subsequent operations ashore near Odessa, although permission was not granted by the Admiralty for recipients to accept and wear their awards and no official entry was made on service records. However, his award is confirmed in Alexander Rudichenko’s Russian Imperial Awards of the Civil War Period (Moscow, 2007); sold with copied service paper and a small (damaged) photograph of the recipient in uniform.